The LARKIN CLAN Site

Larkins in
Australia

The
first possibility we think of in relation to Australia are those
misfortunate people transported to the penal colonies over almost 100 year
period up to 1868. Transportation of convicts started in 1788, immediately
after the loss of the American colonies obliged Britain to search
elsewhere for suitable penal sites. A total of 160,151 convicts were
transported over that period. We are aware of fourteen Larkin family
members from County Galway, who were transported to Australia. The
felonies for which they were transported are grim reminders of the time
they lived in - most were sentenced to 7 years transportation half-way
round the world; usually for killing cattle to feed their families. All
around them, the population was starving. The fourteen include a family of
4 brothers, sentenced to 10 years transportation for killing a cow. This
deed took place at the height of the famine period, in early 1848. Their
trial took place in Galway on July 2nd, 1849. They were incarcerated under
dreadful conditions in Spike Island Jail, which is located on an island
within the estuary of the river Lee in Cork. They had to wait for almost 2
years for the next convict ship, and in the interim period, two of the
brothers died. The four men were Tardy (Timothy), Thomas, John and Patrick
Larkin. Patrick died in Spike Island in 1850; Tardy died in July 15th 1850
and John and Thomas were transported during 1851 on the ship Blenheim. I
am aware that some descendants of Thomas Larkin are still thriving in
Australia. See the full list of LARKIN convicts given below - this
includes not only the Galway Larkins, but those from all of Ireland and
Britain as well. It is comprehensive, and covers the period from 1788 to
1868 inclusive. Amongst those listed are Hugh Larkin, the hero of "The
Great Shame". The list has been compiled from source materials in the
National Library of Ireland, and in the Australian State Archives in New
South Wales and Western Australia.

Of
course, the transported were only a very tiny minority of the numbers who
went to find a new life in Australia. Not all the stories are so grim!
Presumable, some of the early victims of the transportation policy were
able to advise friends, family and neighbors at home that things were not
so bad out there after all. Many decided to stay on after their term was
complete; families came to join them there; and often, that became very
extended families. The earliest Irish settlers found themselves in
Tasmania (Van Diemen's Land) or in New South Wales, the location of the
first penal colonies. Western Australia was added at a later date,
especially around Fremantle. Considerable immigration to Queensland
followed still later, impetus being added by one or other of the gold rush
fevers..

Today, upwards of 15% of the population of Australia claim Irish
descent.